Crackdown on loud motorcycle exhausts soon

The government will urge enforcement agencies to crackdown motorcycles with illegal parts such as modified exhausts and pressure horns that cause nuisance on the roads by producing a deafening sound and are a contributor to noise pollution.

The transport ministry has asked the association of automotive component manufacturers to provide the harmonised system (HS) codes of vehicle parts so that they can take up the issue with excise department to ensure that all items imported comply with the Indian standards.

“Use of modified exhausts, pressure horns and other non-standard parts is illegal; traffic police and local transport departments can take action in such cases. Recently, we had made it clear that unapproved fitments are illegal while issuing clarification on the bull guards in vehicles,” said a ministry official.

Section 190 of the Central Motor Vehicles Act says, “Any person who drives or causes or allows to be driven, in any public place a motor vehicle, which violates the standards prescribed in relation to road safety, control of noise and air pollution, shall be punishable for the first offence with a fine of Rs 1,000 and for any second or subsequent offence with a fine of Rs 2,000.” According to automotive norms, vehicles should adhere to the noise norm of a maximum 80 decibel, but modifications takes the noise level to 100 decibel and above.

Recently, there were reports of police acting against violators. In Gurgaon, a motorcycle rider was arrested and his vehicle seized by the police as its silencer was modified to make a ‘pataka’ sound. In Bengaluru, traffic police crushed illegal, loud exhaust pipes with a bulldozer. The transport department in Kerala will launch a drive from June 1 to suspend the registration certificate of two-wheelers with illegal modified silencers.

“These are all after-market products and we don’t have mandatory standards for them. But there should be mandatory standards for such products. We are carrying out a study and we will submit our recommendations to the government on how best practices can be implemented in after-market products,” said director general of Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India.